Germany gets Danzig

[Locke]

So, lets suppose that Poland relents and gives Nazi Germany the Danzig corridor in 1939 (perhaps Germany pays them a modest sum). Anyways, what happens afterwards? What does Hitler set his sights on next? Would Poland eventually allow itself to be taken over by the Nazis? Would the Winter War still happen?

 

[Faeelin]

Under Hitler? The next demand is Posen and upper Silesia.

 

[TIMER]

So, lets suppose that Poland relents and gives Nazi Germany the Danzig corridor in 1939 (perhaps Germany pays them a modest sum). Anyways, what happens afterwards? What does Hitler set his sights on next? Would Poland eventually allow itself to be taken over by the Nazis? Would the Winter War still happen?

The same thing that happened to chechoslovakia after it handed over the sudetenland.

 

[Locke]

The same thing that happened to chechoslovakia after it handed over the sudetenland.

That's what I was thinking, but Poland was alot bigger, and had a larger army, and it all hinges on wether the Allies would let that happen.

 

[Anaxagoras]

That's what I was thinking, but Poland was alot bigger, and had a larger army, and it all hinges on wether the Allies would let that happen.

Did Poland have a larger Army? IIRC, Czech defensive power was rather formidable/

 

[Locke]

Did Poland have a larger Army? IIRC, Czech defensive power was rather formidable/

But wasn't that because they could concentrate their forces more? Poland had been getting materiel and supplies from Britain and France (IIRC), though the loss of Danzig would have stopped that.

 

[Jape]

Czechoslovakia did have a formidable military, but its main weakness was Czech-Slovak animosity, the nation basically crumbled before German troops even got near Prague.

Poland doesn't have that but I can't see a German invasion going much different even if Danzig was taken, unless French and British forces mobolised to truly point out Danzig was the last straw, unlike the ambiguous situation which saw hitler think noone would mind Poland falling.

In that case, Hitler dies in 1948, while the Reich's economy suffers a downturn due to prolong isolation from Britain, France and Poland and liberalisation begins...

 

[Tyr]

I'd think they would attack anyway.
The point of that demand was it was a impossible demand that Poland could never have given in to. It was just made because even for the Nazis it wasn't the done thing to suddenly attack for no reasn, there has to be a excuse no matter how transparent.

Assuming though it somehow does happen...
Well the allies would have been ready to attack by 1942 at the very latest. Appeasment was working and time was utterly on Britain's side.

Of course a Poland weakened so may find the Soviets coming against it...
You could well get a Nazi-Soviet war over possession of Poland leaving the allies free to liberate the two of them afterwards.

 

[Valdemar II]

It's quite likely that if Poland had been willing to give Danzig corridor and to Germany that they could have ended up as allies against the Russian. Hitler gave up small German minorities more than once (Slovenia, South Tyrol and Transsylvania) and accepted groups he saw as "untermenchen" as allies (Slovakia and Bulgaria) if it served his goals (of course he then declared them Aryan). So I could see a German-Polish defensive (anti-Soviet) pact, which would end up as a German-Polish-Rumanian invasion of USSR a few years later.

 

[Will Lucky]

It would have been chechoslovakia all over again, get what was originally wanted and then completely take everything. Of course thats if the Allies finally felt Danzig was the last straw.

 

[~The Doctor~]

Did Poland have a larger Army? IIRC, Czech defensive power was rather formidable/

Yes, it was. Until Germany took away the heavily-fortified Sudetenland.

 

[dummnutzer]

Czech defenses were concentrated on its border with Germany proper, neglecting Austria. The Anschluß created massive problems ... the Czechs started a crash program to build limited light fortifications on the former Austrian border, but there were massive gaps in the system at the time of the Munich conference.

 

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

There was no "Danzig corridor". There was the Polish Corridor and the Free City of Danzig. Which one are we talking about? The former was vital for Poland's economic survival; there was no question of them "relenting" on this, not for all the beer in Germany and certainly not for nothing as the OP suggests. The latter was negotiable and it seemed likely in the inter-war period that Germany would one day be allowed to absorb it - again, not for nothing. But this is just after Hitler had broken his word on Czechoslovakia and nobody was going to give him anything.

 

[Markus]

So, lets suppose that Poland relents and gives Nazi Germany the Danzig corridor in 1939 (perhaps Germany pays them a modest sum). Anyways, what happens afterwards? What does Hitler set his sights on next? Would Poland eventually allow itself to be taken over by the Nazis? Would the Winter War still happen?

The demand for Danzig and the corridor was a mere pretext.

 

[Admiral Canaris]

But wasn't that because they could concentrate their forces more? Poland had been getting materiel and supplies from Britain and France (IIRC), though the loss of Danzig would have stopped that.

Nope. Gdynia/Gotenhafen was already well developed before the war, a port of their own (though still in the Corridor, of course). Losing Danzig would in and of itself be a major economic blow, but it wouldn't cut them off from sea transports.

 

[Tyr]

There was no "Danzig corridor". There was the Polish Corridor and the Free City of Danzig. Which one are we talking about? The former was vital for Poland's economic survival; there was no question of them "relenting" on this, not for all the beer in Germany and certainly not for nothing as the OP suggests. The latter was negotiable and it seemed likely in the inter-war period that Germany would one day be allowed to absorb it - again, not for nothing. But this is just after Hitler had broken his word on Czechoslovakia and nobody was going to give him anything.

The corridor wasn't really needed for economics, it was just given to Poland as it was Polish and part of their historic lands.
Danzig though was nessesary for their economic survival.
It didn't have to be a free city but it did have to have massive economic rights given to Poland- the Czechs had their own version of Danzig elsewhere in Germany (I can't remember where though off my head....One of the Hanse cities I think)

 

[Locke]

Well, what about if Germany demanded something diferent? Like upper Silesia, like somebody mentioned, which would have been far easier to give up as it was relatively less strategically located.

 

[Larkin]

Hmmm, very interesting... What would Bush have done if Saddam had handed over the weapons of mass distructions?

The demand for Danzig and the corridor was a mere pretext.

 

[Valamyr]

Hitler wanted a war against Poland, and said openly in the last days before the war that his last fear was that a "pork" would once again barter a last minute deal (thinly veiled reference to Mussolini's diplomacy which led to Munich. Hitler believed taking the deal was a mistake till his final days and that he'd have won a general war if it started in 38).

Of course he wanted a local war against Poland, not the war of Sept.3 (yet). He wanted to gain most of Poland, a border with the Soviet Union, and more importantly, to test his army in battle and show the world that Germany was a power. He wanted blood.

If the Poles had folded, he'd have demanded the 1913 borders right away. Only if he obtained that bloodlessly would he had been, I suspect, forced to back down.

 

[Iamwinterborn]

How is one more Center of Trade gonna help their war machine?


*Looks at what he just wrote*


noooooooooooo!


*throws away all copies of paradox games he owns for fear that they will take over his life*




No seriously, tha was my exact thought upon reading the title of this thread...